First, this may be a long set of postings, its mostly done this morning to work things out in my head. Its four AM and I woke up with anxiety/insomnia. True I fell asleep about 10pm, so its not really a full lack of sleep, rather its that I got up earlier then I want. I wonder if part of the problem is I took two benadryl, this is the second night in a row I doubled my benadryl and the second morning in a row I woke up earlier then normal. Its partially I fall asleep earlier, I just thought it might make me sleep longer, doesn’t seem to do that.
I woke up from a dream this morning at 4am. It was a few years from now and I was working as a social worker and pretty happy with my life. Evidently I had gone back to school and gotten a Masters in social services. I think that may be just the stress, but I have always liked helping people. It was a pretty cool dream, my wife, family, friends, a job I enjoyed.
Work is in a pretty weird situation. I put in 105 hours the first ten days of this month, it has been pretty exhausting. Friday afternoon I finished up my “MGOR” (must go out return) and was told I wouldn’t be assigned anymore because I was going to be a runner. I was a bit worried because running doesn’t add to my “chargeable hour” goal of 140 hours of work between the 1-15th of April. They explained it wouldn’t reflect badly on me since I was acting as a courier. So I did some “running” of packages Friday afternoon and had a good deal of fun. They then asked if I could make a run down to Tumwater on Saturday. At first I said yes, but realized it was 75 miles each direction, and honestly my truck isn’t up to that. I don’t want to kill my truck for work so I explained it to them that I couldn’t do it. No biggie, the head admin told me she would like me to come in Saturday, but since she wasn’t sure what time the deliveries would happen to call at 10am.
So I called at 10am, was told she wouldn’t need me Saturday, evidently enough auditors are in that they didn’t have enough work. I was pretty stoked, it meant I had an actual weekend off. After a couple of hours I realized I didn’t know what time she wanted me to come in Monday, so I called back. She then told me she wouldn’t need me as a runner at all. This means I am not sure what the hell I am going to be doing Monday. For some reason I have a bad feeling about this. I am wondering if one of my original assertions that they hired too many people is accurate and that they would be “thinning the herd” after tax season. No one has told me my job is in jeopardy (and I haven’t done anything wrong) but there is a niggling feeling in the back of my head.
This reminds me of last week there was an issue. One of the families asked to take a deduction that is flat out not possible (its sort of a long convoluted story, figure I wont bore you with IRS Code Sections). It was so obviously not possible that my professor (an ex-IRS agent) quizzed us on it several times. I told my “reviewer/specialist” we couldn’t take it, we even looked up the Revenue Code and it backed what I said. I checked the return after I passed it up the ladder a few days later and found out we had taken the deduction anyways (to appease the client, it must have been changed after I had finished my prep). That made me feel unclean, even though I technically am not signing the return and its not my responsibility.
Another note is when I delivered that package on Friday, the receptionist/secretary told me “off the record” that she would recommend I work for a different accounting firm. Evidently her firm (which is a conglomerate of multiple partnerships/LLC’s) was waiting for work promised 10 days before and are thinking of moving to a different company. A lot of issues had come up, and they don’t necessarily have a good rep.
This combined with other little factors makes me wonder if my original assumptions back in October were correct and this wasn’t necessarily the best choice. I do think it was a good decision on some aspects, it got heresyoftruth medical insurance, so she will be going in to have the hyperthyroid testing in ten days, and it gave me a tax season under my belt as a public accountant, which also underlined that I don’t like being a public accountant. Its a good learning experience, I learned I don’t like 70+ hour weeks for ten or more weeks at a time. Especially learning that I will be expected to work more hours as I get more experience. I know some of my coworkers look at me weird, but I don’t want to make a ton of money if it costs me 1/4 to 1/3 of my life. I don’t like sacrificing time with my wife, family and friends in order to make a large amount of money. I enjoy my life, and you really can’t put a price tag on family and friends, its something that has just been reinforced by my experience this tax season. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working OT occasionally, if its not regular, its just not the knowledge that every year I will sacrifice three to five months (depending on deadlines, etc). Its just not worth it to me.
In other news I put in an application yesterday with the Washington State Auditors as an Assistant State Auditor. That means three job apps this week (IRS, DCAA and WA SAO). This is just the start, there are several more fed, state and even local government agencies I want to apply with (even a couple non-profit places, but those are low enough pay I am not sure I could support my wife and our student loans on the wages from them).
Well I sort have lost my wind doing this, so I will wrap it up. ciao.
/edit: I just did another app with the Air Force as a staff accountant.
A Girl U Should Know 